Skull Found on Tulalip Indian Reservation

Tulalip, Washington-  According to a statement from Chief Carlos Eehevarria, Tulalip Tribal Police Department, in the late afternoon of May 16th, 2016  a land surveyor located what appears to be a human skull on the north-eastern boundary of the Tulalip Tribes Reservation near 116th street.

Tulalip police immediately responded to the scene. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is currently assisting with the investigation as well as the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.

Further tests are required to determine whether the skull is in fact human. As this is an open investigation no further comments will be issued by the Tulalip Police until close of inquiry.

The discovery of the skull has brought some renewed hope to the family of missing person Lisa Sledge. The  28-year old Marysville woman reportedly went missing on the Tulalip Reservation on her birthday in 1997.

In 2011 “Washington’s Most Wanted” profiled the missing Marysville woman.  Lisa Sledge’s family reported her missing on December 12th, 1997.

In 2011, the missing woman was only one of three unsolved cases within the Marysville Police Department according to a story by The Marysville Globe Reporter, Kirk Boxleitner.

According to the Marysville Globe Story, Lisa was last seen on her 28th Birthday on December 8th, 1997 with her boyfriend at the time, Erick Mattison, on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. Mattison told detectives that Lisa Sledge walked off after the pickup truck they were in got stuck in the mud. He said they got into an argument and she left on foot and that he got the truck unstuck with the help of some of their friends.

Marysville police have received more than a 100 tips in the case, the most common one was that Lisa Sledge died of an overdose and the people with her panicked and buried her remains without contacting authorities.

Marysville Police Detective Cori Shackleton, told Reporter Kirk Boxleitner in 2011 that the statue of limitations has long since run out on any charge of controlled substance homicide, mishandling of human remains, and obstructing or rendering justice, so if Sledge did die of an accidental overdose, anyone involved in her crime could come forward without being arrested or charged with any of those crimes.   No one came forward.

While the discovery of the human skull on the Tulalip Indian Reservation last week might not be connected to the 1997 disappearance of Lisa Sledge, there is a good chance that it could be and after nearly 19 years of not knowing what happened to their loved one, the family might get some closure on the case.